The Red Devils | Blue Funk Club

The Red Devils | Blue Funk Club

Regular visitors to this website may have noticed that we are fishing in a much deeper ocean these days and successfully landing the occasional much bigger fish. We are not forgetting who we are and will continue to feed-in the very best of the new crop of tomorrow’s greats but it has to be said that it is gratifying and exciting to have built such a reputation that these acts are prepared to come to us. The Red Devils fall squarely into this category.

In the lifetime of the original band they defined the term ‘cult legends’. Playing small venues they began to fill places where you couldn’t get a razor blade in between audiences liberally sprinkled with legendary musicians who were filling arenas. Such was the excitement this band was generating.

After briefly disbanding, the Red Devils powerhouse frontman, Lester Butler, tragically died, still in his 30s but the the motivation within the band still remained and the torch still burned.

Last year we were very excited to present a tribute to this band, by DVL. Made up of very successful and influential blues musicians themselves, from both sides of the Atlantic, who claimed huge influence in turn from The Red Devils.

It was a truly awesome concert and I expect at least the same and more from the source of that influence and adulation.

​From Los Angeles
THE RED DEVILS

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The re-formed Red Devils are touring with ZZ Top this summer. When they visit the UK and Ireland they will have a few days open before returning to the US ….. and on one of those days they will play at the Bluefunk Club.

​Twenty-five years after their seminal live recording “King King” THE RED DEVILS continue to inspire a generation of blues lovers drawn to their gritty Chicago and Texas-inspired blues, by way of Hollywood, California.

Members of the band from that album recording PAUL “THE KID” SIZE (guitar), BILL “BUSTER” BATEMAN (drums) and JONNY RAY BARTEL (bass) are joined by MIKE FLANIGIN (who toured with the band though didn’t record).

Taking the role of the late Lester Butler is Delta Groove recording artist BIG PETE, a monster harp player, front man and singer who attributes his entire musical existence to seeing The Red Devils in 1993.

​From their Monday night haunt at Hollywood club “King King” they developed a cult-like following. Producer Rick Rubin was one of those regulars, eventually producing the band’s “King King” album (recorded live at the club).

Rubin then brought them into the studio with fan Mick Jagger. Years before the Rolling Stones returned to their blues roots on record, Jagger and the Devils laid down nearly two dozen rowdy blues classics that sounded raw and real. The sessions went unreleased officially, but circulated widely as a popular bootleg. One cut “Checkin’ Up On My Baby” finally was released on Jagger’s 2006 “Very Best” compilation.

After that session, Rubin again called on the Devils, this time to back the legendary Johnny Cash. Those recordings were also shelved until the Cash “Unearthed” box set.

The Allman Brothers fell in love with the Devils’ sound taking them on their 1992 East Coast tour.